Agents Window consistently flashing after app update

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

After updating Cursor the Agents Window constantly flickers.

Steps to Reproduce

Update to the most recent version (07/21/2026).
Open the Agents Window.
See constant flashing.

Expected Behavior

It should not flash constantly.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.12.29 (Universal)
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: cd1c87ff9b66021918fb9731605f8d1d5fd2f0b0
Date: 2026-07-21T03:26:05.811Z
Layout: Agent Window
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Not specific to a model.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, thanks for the report. This looks like a window-level GPU compositing issue.

First, try turning off hardware acceleration:

  • Editor window → Cmd+Shift+P → Preferences: Configure Runtime Arguments
  • Add "disable-hardware-acceleration": true
  • Fully restart Cursor and check again.

A few questions to help narrow it down:

  • Does it still flicker if you switch to a regular editor layout instead of the Agent Window?
  • Are you on an external monitor or the built-in display? What scaling DPI and refresh rate, and what Mac model and GPU?
  • Did this not happen on the previous version? What version did you upgrade from to 3.12.29?

Let me know if disable-hardware-acceleration helped. The next step depends on that.

4

Go into Settings, then Appearance, then switch from Cursor Dark High Contrast - to Cursor Dark.

6

@deanrie I have the same issue and tried disabling hw accel. No dice. If anything the problem appeared slightly worse. I upgraded from the latest version before current, assuming 3.12.28?

7

Hey, looks like it’s not the GPU, it’s the theme. This is a known bug with the Cursor Dark High Contrast theme, it can make the whole app flicker nonstop.

As @Castellano suggested above: Settings > Appearance, then switch from Cursor Dark High Contrast to any other theme, like Cursor Dark. The flickering should stop right away, no restart needed.

@DeeGee hardware acceleration isn’t related here, so you can turn disable-hardware-acceleration back off and just change the theme.

The bug is on our side and should be fixed in one of the next updates. Let us know if switching the theme helped.

9

The newest update pushed last evening fixed it with no theme-change required. Thanks for the help @deanrie!